Malt Mission 2007 #192

Compass Box Flaming Heart
(Vatted) Malt Scotch Whisky
Limited Release #FH16 MMVII
48.9% abv
£40
$80(USD)

Fireworks galore last night. In fact it has been going on for a month. Yesterday was Guy Fawkes Night and hopefully now the nightly display is over. The pop and fizzes bring to mind cracking knuckles and reminds me of an email I received from a man who wanted to know what whisky I would recommend for his arthritis-suffering sister. Before you panic, it was her doctor who endorsed the treatment, not me. I just offered recommendations of rich sipping whiskies. I then got to poking around and was amazed to find how alcohol seems to have the privilege of being the cure AND cause of almost every disease, ailment and sickness!

"Ah, beer. The cause and solution to all of life's problems."- Homer Simpson

The good news is that the current consensus seems to be that moderate intake of alcohol can both prevent against arthritis and slow the effect of rheumatoid arthritis. So enjoy every drop of the Water of Life, Adrienne, the prescription is a winner.

Right, to the whisky of the day, the daily dram, the morning malt...

This is the second release of Flaming Heart (we had the first back at Malt Mission #12) and the good news is that this time it will be available beyond Europe. Like the first release, this is made up of malt whiskies (Clynelish, Linkwood, Caol Ila) that have matured in first fill ex-bourbon casks and then undergone a secondary maturation in new toasted French oak casks. The result of peated and non-peated whisky, some of the best blended ingredients in the industry, combined with skill and exposed to new oak has created a unique array of flavours unlike anything else out there. Doesn't mean it will be to everyone's liking, but those who like it like it a lot and the whole process is yet more evidence that John Glaser is a leading innovator in the world of whisky.

TASTING NOTES:

Lots of vanilla, cloves, freshly baked goods. Finger paints, peat, and putty. Balloons. Some boiled pork, too.

White grapes, cinnamon, pepper, and peat smoke. Yoghurt and toasty woodiness, too. Long but gentle finish of wood, tobacco and a whiff of peat.

SUMMARY:

Quite a different mouthfeel to the first edition, so far as my memory is accurate. Great, assertive flavours excited by the abv% and amplified by the oak and careful combination of the some of the best malt whiskies in Scotland. Perhaps a bit punchy to the new whisky drinker, but wonderfully easy drinking with a drop of water and enough complexity to stimulate debate among connoisseurs.

Malt Mission #191
Malt Mission #193
Malt Mission #194
Malt Mission #195

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Malt Mission 2007 #12

Compass Box Flaming Heart
(Vatted) Malt Scotch Whisky
Limited Release #FH16 MMVI
48.9% abv
£38.50

First thing to exlain is that John Glaser has created something he calls Oak Cross. This is a whisky he has recently released(a whisky somewhere between Bailie Nichol Jarvie and Glenmorangie Artisan Cask, both in price and taste), but it is also a cask he has created in which some of his whiskies spend the end of their maturation. Flaming Heart is such a whisky.

The Oak Cross casks are made with American white oak bodies and Sessile French oak heads. The idea is that Sessile oak yields specific flavours John wants in his whiskies. But also, it gives him the ability to toast the wood to a variant level and, as it wont be bent into a cask shape like the rest of the oak in the cask, he can char/toast the crap out of the stuff(if desired).

Flaming Heart is "a limited release, we are going to do it once, and we are not planning to do it again. At least not in the near future." (They did. See Malt Mission #192). Limited to 2100 bottles, this is the beginning of a whole new era for John Glaser and Compass Box. "The whole idea behind the Limited Release range for us is that we can use small quantity of casks that we can't use on a more commercial basis. Things we can't recreate...or don't want to recreate. The limited release range gives us a platform for releasing fun stuff" When you see John's "lab", you get an idea of just how much "fun stuff" is in store for us.

The name is taken from song by M. Ward (who will be playing in Toronto Jan 27). Malts in the mix include Caol Ila, Clynelish, and Linkwood.

TASTING NOTES:

Wafts of honeyed smoke, peat, and ham. Drying paint. Dry spice, like tumeric. A sweetness of dried plums, or prunes. Rich and engaging. Unusual combination of impressions from Scottish whisky. Blind, might guess Japanese.

Fireplace ash, mesquite. More dry spices, tumeric, smoked paprika, cinnamon. Creamy to swallow, peat smoke, sweet spices, pudding-like. Those flavours mixed with smoke are in great balance and uncommon in combination. Moreish.

SUMMARY:

Well, the stuff is only available in Europe, and that is the only negative I can find. Great (new) packaging, tasty and unusual stuff inside, and only further evidence that John is creating easy drinking and well crafted whiskies that are more than the sum of their parts. Style AND substance. And as this one is only available in Europe, tomorrow we will try one that is only available in Ontario.

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